Not The First Time
by Belen09
Summary: Neither man consciously realized it, but Mycroft Holmes and John Watson had met - thirty plus years before . . . with the same basic result. And Sherlock wasn't even in the picture. Much. An AU of a sort.


Not The First Time

Neither man consciously realized it, but Mycroft Holmes and John Watson had met – thirty plus years before . . . with the same basic result. And Sherlock wasn't even 'in the picture'. Much. An AU of a sort.

OOOOO

As John Watson exited the black limousine, he noticed 'the posh git in the fancy suit' standing with an umbrella artistically arranged, and a chair presumably placed for him to sit in. His leg literally would have had to be falling off before he would do that, so he marched up to the git in question, thus beginning an interrogation that neither man would find entirely satisfying . . .

Funny thing was, though neither man remembered . . . this wasn't the first time they had met . . . with the same basic results.

OOOOO

It had been 'a plea for help' that caused Siegfried Holmes to drag his very pregnant wife Violet with him, as he came to the aid of his cousin Millicent – the young woman was 'at wit's end' trying to deal with her husband – a man she loved dearly – and who was currently becoming a liability to anyone who had any contact with their family. Although a person of substantial means, Thomas Crenshaw seemed to be bent on a course of bankrupting himself and his new bride. The 'last straw' as it were, was the purchase of a derelict estate – 'The Willows' – lovely, but an absolute 'money pit', complete with gardener and housekeeper – the Watsons, and their two young children.

Siegfried, for his part, could tell immediately that Thomas was absolutely smitten with both his young bride – and the ancient, decaying holding – which he proudly mentioned dated back to pre-Conquest times. He could also tell that the gardener, an honest man though one obviously a bit of a tippler, had tried to appeal to his employer's practical side and had gotten nowhere. So it was quite obvious to him that the best solution would be to build a new house, and treat the old one as an historical archeological site, to be admired from afar. Thomas, however, was bubbling with excitement, and insisted in dragging both Siegfried, and a rapidly tiring Violet through the ruins of the estate, leaving seven year old Mycroft in the company of six year old Harriet and almost three year old John, with of course, their Mum (and Crenshaw's housekeeper).

Harriet for her part, liked to 'play dolls' and had, on occasion (with varying degrees of success) enlisted her younger brother 'to stand in' as a playmate and surrogate 'doll'. Sometimes the little tow-headed child would be amenable, allowing her to 'natter on' and dress him in old worn-out clothes, pretending that he was 'Peter Cottontail' or 'Winnie the Pooh' - (Both characters in books that their mum had read to the children.)

Today, however, was not one of those days – and John walked away from his sister and her collection of admiring dolls – to stand in a corner of the old garden complete with ancient rose bushes. He was looking at something on the ground, and Mycroft followed the young boy, wondering what he could be seeing that was so interesting. There was a hole in the ground, with bits of turned up soil – it looked like 'evidence' (Mycroft had just learned the word) of some kind of insect.

John pointed to the hole and said, "Ants are alive!" and smiled brightly. (That thousand-watt grin might have 'clued in' Future Mycroft – but then John never did smile during their first or second meetings – so it never came up.) The boy who would one day be a doctor, sat on a log by the spot intent on watching the ant hill, his dad had recently explained to him that all sorts of things in the world were 'alive' . . . and John understood even at this early age that you should be 'good' to things that were 'alive'.

The situation might have stayed like that but then Mycroft took a stick and poked the hole where the ants were crawling in and out of. He liked watching the tiny creatures react to the threat of the stick, and see what they would do if their world was messed with. (Of course he was thinking it was just fun to poke the stick, but you get the 'picture'.) Suddenly, instead being able to do just that, he found the stick taken away and stomped on by a very angry John Watson. "No! Don't hurt them! You're bad!"

At this point, John's mum intervened – she could tell immediately that her small 'tornado' of a son was on the way to have a 'temper tantrum' of epic proportions. (While Harriet could be sulky and difficult, she could be dealt with eventually. John on the other hand, was best handled by literally picking him up, and putting him in a quiet place away from other people.) She did pick up her son, and added mostly for the Holmes boy's benefit, "What did I tell you about getting angry?" (As usual, John was not impressed.)

This did however, cause Mycroft to stop his 'investigation' (another new word that he learned) and he waited by John's mum until his father (and mother – who looked 'sick') came back. Father ran into the big building and out – saying to everyone outside – that he had called 'Emergency Services' and that an ambulance would be there shortly. And straightaway, came the ambulance – which the seven year old Mycroft thought 'exciting' and took mother away – his father put him in their automobile and followed to the hospital – very soon after, his father informed him that he had a baby brother – "born too early."

Mycroft thought it was a bother, as he did not want a baby brother – for a fleeting moment he thought of John Watson, who had told him that he was 'bad'. No, a baby brother would be a 'huge bother' – 'huge' being another word that he had just learned – meaning 'really, really big'. (Years later, Mycroft wondered why the word 'huge' stuck in his head when he thought of Sherlock; he was after all taller than his baby brother . . .)

OOOOO

A.N. I hope that I got the characters of Mycroft and John properly – they are both so iconic, that even as small children, their individual temperaments would be apparent. Along with the classic characters of Doyle – Siegfried and Violet are mentioned in other stories as the names of Mycroft and Sherlock's parents. And 'The Money Pit' was the name of a very funny movie, about someone buying an old house.

OOOOO


End file.
